The Colour Grey
by Shadows0fthemoon
Summary: For the rest of the world, grey is the colour of detachment, indecision but for Hermione, grey is the colour of new opportunities, new hopes and new dreams. Hermione left everything behind in the hopes of finding someone or something to bring a spark to her black and white life. And the colour to do that for her was the colour grey.
1. Prologue

Prologue

For many people, Hermione was living the dream life; she had a husband, two beautiful children and a gorgeous house. But she was unhappy- there was no spark, no excitement in her life that she thought she would have with Ron...the spark was there at first but slowly over time it just fizzed out, she felt absolutely nothing when she looked at him or when he touched her. Just nothing.

That's why she had to leave, well that's what she told herself, Hermione wanted to travel the world. She was young by muggle standards, only twenty seven years old and she was already tied down in a loveless marriage. She couldn't take it anymore.

Hermione packed her bags, practically emptying her wardrobe, dumping everything in two suitcases (that obviously had space expansion charms on them). By the time she had finished packing it was half past twelve which meant that she only had two hours before Hugo and Ron came home as Rose was already at Hogwarts. Grabbing a piece of A4 paper and a pen she wrote this note.

 _I'm so so sorry but I just can not take it anymore. Ron, I don't love you anymore- there's no spark, no excitement and I'm sick of all the drama and lies surrounding our life. I have to get away. Hugo, I love you don't let anybody tell you otherwise, take care of yourself and do well in your studies. Tell the same to Rose can you. I don't know when I'll be back. Goodbye._

After much debate, she slid her wedding ring off her finger and placed it on top of the folded note. Then she apparated away. Out of her family's life. The next time she would see them would be over a decade away.

* * *

A/N

Hi guys, I'm trying a new story here. Hope you like it!


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When Ron entered the house, with Hugo, he immediately knew that something was wrong. The house was too quite- normally with Hermione home there was some sort of noise either her singing, music playing, rustling of books or she was talking to someone. There was none of that, it was like he had just entered a morgue. Also the fact that there were no lights on in the house was a major indicator that something was wrong, as Hermione would have told him if she was going out.

"Come on Hugo, let's get you a snack." Ron said to his son, ruffling his curly brown hair as he went past to the kitchen.

As Ron turned on the kitchen light, a glint caught his eye. It was Hermione's wedding ring, shakily Ron lifted up the paper from underneath the ring and read, getting paler and paler as he did so.

"Dad, what's the matter?" Came Hugo's soft voice from behind him.

Spinning around on his heel, with the note still in his hand, stalked towards the fireplace, "We're going to the Potter's, now!"

He grabbed the floo powder, threw it and shouted "Potter's Den."

As Ron walked through the front hall, he bumped into his sister. He ignored whatever she was going to say and dragged her to the study where he knew Harry was going to be.

He burst into the room and stomped up to the desk.

"Look," as he thrust the paper under Harry's eyes "Look, and see what she has done."

Harry gingerly took the paper from his enraged friend and read over the note, when he finished he passed the note to Ginny, who was hovering by his shoulder; wondering what this drama was all about. Harry put his head in his hands and sighed.

"She left you because she felt no spark in your relationship?" Came Ginny's incredulous voice "Why is she being such a bitch!"

Ron started laughing, it was not a laugh filled with joy and happiness, it was a laugh of a man who realised that he had lost the one of the best things in his life, it was a laugh of despair.

"I don't understand, what did I do wrong?" Ron whispered "Okay, we haven't had many nights to ourselves in the past year and what we do have we make it work, but what does she mean about the lies? What lies have I told her, I may not of told her some things but during our time together I have never lied to her."

"Ron, mate, do you and Hugo want to stay the night here whilst I go and see if she left any indication to where she has gone?"

"Please." Ron whispered before he broke into heartbreaking sobs.

Harry opened the study door to see Hugo outside the door, with tears silently running down his face and his had grasping Lily's. He let go of his daughter's hand and ran to his dad and cried in his shoulder. Harry ushered Lily and Ginny out of the room to let the father and son duo have some privacy.

"Is it true Dad, has Mum really left us?"Hugo mumbled against his dad's shoulder "Does she not love us anymore?"

"Yeah Hugh, she left us. She said that she loves you but she doesn't love me."

"Did she say anything about Rose?"

"No bud, you know those two never got on. In your Mum's mind Rose was an accident and she will continue to be one. But never mind. We can manage until June can't we, and then when Rosie gets back home we can do something to take our minds off of this drama. Maybe we can go to Disneyland, or the beach."

"I don't want to do any of that." muttered Hugo "I just want Mum."

"So do I," came Ron's whispered response. "So do I."

...

* * *

...

First stop for Hermione was Gringotts, she wanted a bank card linked to her personal vault and to her muggle bank account so she would never have to worry about going back to England if she ran out of Galleons and running into Ron by accident.

Her second stop was to the ministry: she didn't want to be married to Ron anymore so she got the divorce papers ready, signed her bit and gave Ron full custody of the children-not that she didn't want them anymore, but they were just painful reminders of her unhappy marriage to a man who she had more arguments with than anybody she'd ever met in her life.

Third stop. She popped into Regent Street to get herself an iPhone 6s because why not and she also wanted Instagram to document her travelling life. She wanted to enjoy life.

After getting that done, she was free. She shrunk her luggage and put it into her handbag, took out her wand and made a illegal portkey, out of a leaf that she picked off the ground, to Australia- where her parents where currently residing. Hermione wanted to tell them what happened in person, not over the phone, or by owl post.

Whilst on her way to her parents house in Melbourne, she decided that she couldn't possibly apparate every where and that it was high time that she had a car for herself. She got herself a blue Ford Fiesta and continued on her journey.

Hermione hadn't seen her parents in five years so understandably she was quite nervous. She parked, got out of the car and walked to the front door. She stood there for about 5 minutes, contemplating whether she should knock now or go find a place to stay then come back when the door suddenly opened and mother appeared.

"Hermione!" She gasped, bringing her daughter in for a bear hug, "I've missed you so much. How are Ron and the children?"

"That's the thing I want to talk to you about mum." Hermione took a deep breath "Can I come inside?"

"Yes yes, sorry"

Hermione stepped into the house and she couldn't help but admire the openness of the house and light feel it gave off. Her Mum (Helen Granger) lead her into the sitting room where they sat opposite each other.

"Where's Dad?"

"Your father is at the surgery, now stop stalling and tell me what happened."

"I've left Ron and the kids."

Helen was shocked, she made no move to talk.

"I just couldn't do it anymore. I had to get out of there. I felt trapped. Helpless. The fact that I don't love Ron also helped. To be honest the only reason I married him was because I fell pregnant with Rose and you know how Dad's family would've reacted." Hermione sobbed, "I know he loved me but I was never in love with him. That's why I never got on well with Rose, I guess I blamed her, saying that it was her fault that I was stuck in a marriage I never wanted to be in the first place.I'm such a bad mother."

"Listen to me, Hermione Jean Granger, you are not a bad mother. You are a terrific one- even if you blamed Rose you still cared for her, you still loved her. Now why are you in Australia?"

"I wanted to travel the world, I wanted to see things that I have never seen before. I just want to go and experience life. Also I would like to buy houses all over the world so I always have a place to go to."

"Oh Hermione, you are always welcome here. If you ever want to 'pop' by for a visit, please do. Now when your father gets home, we will talk about this properly."

...

* * *

...

Harry apparated into the Ron's house, he didn't feel comfortable saying Ron and Hermione as Hermione had gone and left him. He still didn't believe that she could do something like that. She had done it before, she can still remember when she just walked out of Divination in third year and didn't come back. She did exactly the same thing here; Hermione just upped and left and it didn't look like she was coming back any time soon.

Harry went up to the master bedroom and found all the drawers and doors of the cupboard open, every single item of clothing and jewellery was gone, he checked the en suite bathroom and only Ron's things were there;her toothbrush, soap, deodorant, moisturiser, make up bag-everything was gone. It was basically stripped down of all things Hermione.

Harry then ventured into the study, and her laptop obviously was not there but her world map was- the map showed every single place that she wanted to go in the world. He inspected the map-over 15 places were marked but he knew where she would go first. Hermione would go to Australia, to see her parents and perhaps tell them what was happening.

Harry was actually disgusted with Hermione, he knew that the only reason they got married was because of Rose but she told him when she was drunk that she loved Ron with all of her heart and she could never bear to break it as it would break her. What a lie that was.

Harry apparated back to Potter's den, to find Ron drowning his sorrows in a glass of fire-whisky and Hugo copying him but instead of fire-whisky it was apple juice. It was nine o'clock. Harry didn't realize he'd spent that long in Ron's house.

"Come on Hugo, off to bed." Harry said as he took the tumbler full of apple juice away from the ten year old boy. "You're sleeping in Lily's room, is that okay?"

The boy gave a slow nod, yawned and went off up the stairs.

"We have work tomorrow." Harry reminded Ron "Are you taking tomorrow off?"

Ron drained whatever was left of the fire-whisky that was left in his tumbler "No, I'm going to work and I'm going to be there for my children. As Hermione clearly was not."

"Have you sent a letter to Rose yet?"

"Yeah, it was the first thing I did after you left."

"Oka-"

"Did you find anything?" Ron interrupted "Do you know where she might be?"

"I'm not totally sure Ron, but I think she went to Australia." Harry said tentatively "You know, to visit her parents"

"I'm not going to look for her, I can't." Ron murmured "She can fend for herself, and knowing her she has probably already drawn up divorce papers and they're waiting for me on my desk at the office. Harry, she's broken my heart, she's broken Hugo's as well and I don't know about Rose but you know how much she wanted to be like her mum-the smartest witch in her generation. I call that bullshit."

"What?" Harry asked confused.

"She's the not the smartest witch in our generation, if she was she would thought of another way to do this. She is a cold hearted bitch and I will never forgive her for it."

With that said Ron got up walked off, probably to the guest room where he would stay the night. Harry put his head in his hands, this was supposed to be the Golden Trio's fairy tale ending and then Hermione had to go and fuck it up.

...

* * *

...

Hermione had just finished explaining thoroughly to her parents what had happened and although her dad was not totally happy, he understood as he hated the thought of his daughter, his only child, trapped in a loveless marriage.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Richard Granger asked.

"I want to travel the world and do it whilst I'm still young. I want to exploit the opportunities that have been given to me and most of all, I just want to have fun and maybe even fall in love for real."

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Merry Christmas everybody!**

 **Hope you have a fantastic time and get everything you wanted and more.**


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Her parents offered for her to stay with them but she knew if she did she would end up smothered and never end up leaving. Being smothered is something that she never coped well with. After Hermione said goodbye, she was about to call up a local hotel and ask if she could stay for two nights, but she bumped into someone and her handbag spilled it's contents all over the ground.

"Granger-wait Weasley?" Came a familiar voice. "What are you doing here, isn't your family back in England?"

Hermione got up from the ground and turned to see Draco Malfoy standing behind her. The pair had been Head Boy and Head Girl in what should have been their 7th year at Hogwarts but instead was their 8th. At first they did not get along at all, Draco thought of Hermione as a spiteful bitch who thought she knew everything and Hermione thought of Draco as a stuck up prick who still thought blood mattered. But the two of them had been forced to get along with each other otherwise they would lose the positions that they had wanted for most of their academic life. Their hatred turned into mild dislike which then turned into actually liking each other, then they started to fancy each other and by the end of the year they were confessing their love to each other and were boyfriend and girlfriend. But then Draco fucked it up by sleeping with Pansy and as an act of revenge Hermione slept with Ron which caused her to fall pregnant with Rose and to marry Ronald as she didn't want to bring disrespect to her father's family. Draco and Hermione hadn't seen each other in eleven years.

"Oh, hello Malfoy." Hermione said as she bent back down to pick up her belongings from the ground, "As to why I'm in Australia-my parents live here and I was telling them how I left Ron and the children as I just couldn't do it anymore. And I'm going to be Granger again-soon I hope, I've signed the divorce papers and given him custody of the children."

"Oh," Malfoy muttered "Then our lives are kinda the same...in a way."

"How?"

"Well, shortly after we broke up, I slept with Astoria Greengrass and I got her pregnant." Draco sighed "My father forced me to marry her as he did not want me to bring disrespect to the Malfoy or the Greengrass name. I had a son and he is called Tiberius, he's a horrible child and I really really don't like Astoria so I decided to call it quits and so I divorced her. And now here I am, in Australia." At Hermione's inquisitive look "I run businesses over here and they are quite successful. If I do say so myself." Draco popped the collar of his shirt as he said that.

Hermione laughed, it was laugh that reminded Draco of all the good times that they had together and he was a fool to think that Pansy was better than her. A complete and utter fool.

"Do you need a place to stay?" Draco blurted out.

"What?" Hermione asked slightly confused "Say that again, but slower."

"I said, do you need a place to stay?"

"Oh, I was just going to call up a hotel and get a room for a few nights and then go exploring."

"You can stay with me if you want and I can show all the good places to go, seeing as I have lived here for almost six years."

"Well, okay then. Thanks Draco."

* * *

Ron walked up to his desk and shook his head, it was eight o'clock in the morning and already there was a huge pile of paperwork on his desk. As he walked closer he saw that it was not anything to do with the auror office but instead it was from the Department of Family Relations- it was the divorce paper work. He sighed, damn Hermione still worked fast. He skimmed through the paper. She was giving him full custody of the children, she clearly didn't want anything to do with the name Weasley. She was cutting all ties to them. Ron rubbed his temples before setting down to work, he had a lot of paper work to do.

It was some time later when Harry came into the office and saw Ron swamped with paper work, "I didn't assign you all that, did I?"

"No, you didn't." Ron sighed, pushing his hair back from his face, "It's the paperwork for the divorce. Hermione sent it, she's done her part now I just need to do mine."

"So she really went through with it?" Harry sighed "I didn't think that she would actually do it. I mean she has loved you since 6th year. Remember when you where dating Lavender Brown and she attacked you with birds and then I went after her." At Ron's nod he continued "Well, she spent the whole night, with her head on my shoulder, crying."

"That might of happened then, but remember when she went back for her eighth year and Ginny told us how close Hermione and Malfoy were getting and that everyone thought that they were dating, well until she slept with me. To be totally honest, I only think she married me because she didn't want to bring shame upon our families, well you know how much Mum and Ginny talk." Ron took a deep breath, " Also the only reason Hugo came about was because we were drunk as skunks on New Year's otherwise he wouldn't be around."

"You know what mate, when you're finished with the papers go home. There's not much going on today and if we do need you I will floo call you. Is that alright?" Harry asked.

"Yeah yeah that's fine." Ron murmured distractedly as he went back to the paper work.

Harry shook his head solemnly and walked off to his office, wondering what a future without Hermione would bring as she had been the rock in their relationship, she was the voice of reason and now it look like she doesn't want anything to do with them anymore.

What Hermione did was so selfish. She just packed her bags and left to children and a loving husband, she didn't even leave any indication that she was about to leave. She left her family when her children needed her most.

Harry could never hate Hermione but he was disappointed in her as she could have thought of a smarter way to settle this as she is after all the smartest witch in their generation.

* * *

Two days had passed and Draco had shown Hermione all the best sites that he could think of in Australia. He showed her the places that where rich in culture like Ayers rock, the places that had an abundance of nature like the Great Barrier Reef; they spent hours scuba diving and snorkeling and when they came out of the water they looked like wrinkled prunes. Draco also showed Hermione, Sydney Opera House, the National Gallery of Victoria and many more places. And of course, Hermione took pictures of all these places and uploaded it to her Instagram account which was quickly growing in followers.

"Thank you so much Draco," Hermione gushed "This is amazing!"

"No worries Hermione." Draco chuckled.

Hermione looked around in awe, Draco had taken her to see the National Library of Australia in Canberra. Hermione was in heaven, the walls were stacked with books of many different genres, she picked out a book on Aboriginal culture as that was something she didn't know anything about and she wanted to learn more.

About an hour later, Hermione heard the snap of a camera, she looked up and saw Draco holding her phone. He had just taken a picture of her whilst she was engrossed in her reading, he was looking quite smug, obviously pleased with his photo taking skills. Hermione grabbed the phone to see what the picture looked like: the book she was reading was flat on the table and she had one arm propped up supporting her head as her chestnut coloured hair draped across her face. In the photo it looked like to Hermione only the book mattered. Nothing else.

After Hermione was finished they went around Canberra, just exploring.

"I didn't know you could use a phone Draco." came Hermione's incredulous voice.

"Well how else am I supposed to contact my business partners and communicate with muggles who live halfway around the world."

Hermione shrugged, "I just wouldn't have thought that you would use a phone. Rather stupid of me to think that actually as you do run a business that is mainly based in the muggle world. Another question, why are you mainly based in the muggle world? I thought that it would be the other way around."

"Well, I met a girl in my eighth year at Hogwarts, she showed me the wonders that the muggle world had to offer and gradually I fell for her and I've never regretted anything more in my life that what I did to hurt her. I was a stupid hormonal teenager who thought that it was cool to have a girlfriend but have sex with another girl, I didn't know what I had lost until it was too late."

"Oh," Hermione whispered, "I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anything." Draco murmured as he turned to face Hermione, "Don't say a word." Draco moved to cup Hermione's face and as if there were a magnet attracting the two together, their lips touched and they didn't separate for a long time. As you know, opposites attract.

After a while they separated and Draco tugged Hermione into an alley way to apparated back to his condo in Melbourne where they did the frickle frackle. After that happened Draco asked Hermione whether she wanted to be his girlfriend once again. Her answer was a blissful yes, she had forgotten how good sex felt when you did it with a person you actually liked.

" You know that as my boyfriend you are required to go travelling with me so you can defend my honour if any sort of situation like that arises." Hermione muttered, her face buried in Draco's chest, both of them naked and wrapped in the quilt.

" Not that I think that you would need any help defending your honour but sure I'll go with you. When we get up in the morning I will tell my secretary that I am going on holiday and to only call me if the case is urgent."

Hermione laughed and gave a murmured thanks, gave Draco's chest a peck and snuggled in to go to sleep.

She knew that the next few weeks or even months would be filled with adventure. She could not wait!

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Hi guys, here is another update. Hope you had a fantastic New Year. Good luck for whatever you do in the year to come.**

 **Fact Corner**

 **. Only 8% of people are successful in achieving their New Year's Resolution!**

 **Hope your part of that eight percent.**

 **Shadows0fthemoon**


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